Laura Woods says she has ‘mixed feelings’ after it was suggested that Granit Xhaka could leave Arsenal in the summer and Declan Rice could join from West Ham United.
The talkSPORT host and Arsenal fan added that she ‘doesn’t want’ Granit Xhaka to leave and that it would be ‘sad’ to see him go after his redemption story.
Only a few years ago, the club’s fans would have been more than happy to see the back of the 30-year-old, who had been stripped of the captaincy a month before Mikel Arteta arrived.
The Arsenal boss had walked into a wave of issues all over the shop, no more so than Xhaka wanting out, but the former Manchester City assistant somehow managed to persuade the Switzerland international to stay.
Fast forward to the present and the £120k-a-week star (Spotrac) is now one of the most important players on the teamsheet and a key reason why the Gunners are still pushing for the Premier League title.
But these final few weeks of the 2022/23 Premier League season, could be the red-card specialists’ last days as an Arsenal player and Woods doesn’t want his journey to come to an end, as she told talkSPORT (09/05/23).
“I feel very mixed,” said Woods. “I would be delighted if Declan Rice was joining. But I would feel very sad that Granit Xhaka is leaving.
“His redemption story at Arsenal is one of my favourites. He has been brilliant for us of late. I would be sad if he is leaving.
“But if that’s what he wants to do because he gets to start every game, if Declan came in and they moved things around a little bit, then he probably wouldn’t get a start, would he?!
“However, I kind of think next season, Arsenal getting Champions League football. You need a bigger squad, anyway. I would love to see a world where you kept both of them, to be honest. I don’t want him to leave. I don’t want him to go.”
XHAKA IS ON HIS WAY OUT…?
It’s been suggested that personal reasons could be behind Xhaka’s possible Arsenal exit and return to Germany and joining Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen – he played for Borussia Mönchengladbach before moving to the Emirates in 2016.
Whilst there were many rocky roads for the hard-hitting tackler, that journey is now starting to head down a much healthier pathway.
Forget about what Xhaka brings on the field of play, in the dressing room and on the training pitch is where he will probably be most missed because of his leadership skills.
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